Mosaic Murals by Dorothy Annan
Find out more about Dorothy Annan’s three marble mosaics at Newcastle University, decorating the curved exterior walls of the Courtyard Restaurant, in the Old Library Building.
The artwork
Dorothy Annan (1908–1983) was a particularly talented English painter, ceramicist and muralist. The abstract figures in her three marble mosaics at Newcastle University each symbolise a different theme:
- space travel
- mining
- architecture
These three mosaic murals in Newcastle can be seen very high up on the outside of the Old Library Building. They are each made using small pieces of coloured marble.
Dorothy Annan’s murals at Newcastle University were commissioned in 1958 by the architects Easton and Robertson. At the time, the two architects were working on an extension for what was then the new King's College Library – now known as the Old Library Building.
The artist
This particular commission is one of only three surviving murals by Annan. Tragically, the majority of her many tile murals once found across the UK have now been destroyed.
Unfortunately, artwork that was incorporated into the physical fabric of buildings from the late 1930s through to the 1960s has been destroyed. Many artists had to watch their work disappear as buildings were demolished or altered, or when their designs were deemed unfashionable and dispensable.
Annan’s largest single mural – The Expanding Universe, designed for the Bank of England in London – was demolished in 1997.
Thankfully, her mural in the Fleet Building in central London has been saved. This piece was originally commissioned by the Ministry of Works in 1960 and consists of nine large ceramic panels featuring abstracted images of telecommunications equipment. This work is a very striking example of 1960s mural art – it has now been relocated to the Barbican in London and is a Grade II-listed artwork.
